2011: 'Born This Way' & 24 Other Essential Queer Anthems

For 25 years, OUT has celebrated queer culture. To mark our silver jubilee, we look back at some of the biggest, brightest moments of the past 9,131 days.

In 2011, Lady Gaga released the most explicit, unabashed musical ode to the LGBTQ community we’d ever heard. But she wasn’t the first artist to write a song that spoke to—and for—us. Here, we pay homage to the 25 most influential queer anthems of the past 25 years. They inspired us. They empowered us. They kept us at the club way later than we should have been.